November 7, 2012

Ms. Donna L. Johnson

Counsel for City of Cleveland

Olson & Olson LLP

2727 Allen Parkway, Suite 600

Houston, Texas 77019-2133

OR2012-17908

Dear Ms. Johnson:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 474734 (COC12-046).

The City of Cleveland (the "city"), which you represent, received a request for law enforcement records regarding a named individual. You state personal identification and social security numbers will be withheld pursuant to sections 552.130 and 552.147 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ You claim other responsive information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the information you submitted.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information made confidential by other statutes. Criminal history record information ("CHRI") obtained from the National Crime Information Center (the "NCIC") or the Texas Crime Information Center is confidential under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal and state law. CHRI means "information collected about a person by a criminal justice agency that consists of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, and other formal criminal charges and their dispositions." Id. § 411.082(2). Federal law governs the dissemination of CHRI obtained from the NCIC network. Federal regulations prohibit the release to the general public of CHRI maintained in state and local CHRI systems. See 28 C.F.R. § 20.21(c)(1) ("Use of criminal history record information disseminated to noncriminal justice agencies shall be limited to the purpose for which it was given.") and (c)(2) ("No agency or individual shall confirm the existence or nonexistence of criminal history record information to any person or agency that would not be eligible to receive the information itself."). The federal regulations allow each state to follow its own individual law with respect to CHRI it generates. See Open Records Decision No. 565 at 10-12 (1990); see generally Gov't Code ch. 411 subch. F. Although sections 411.083(b)(1) and 411.089(a) of the Government Code authorize a criminal justice agency to obtain CHRI, a criminal justice agency may not release CHRI except to another criminal justice agency for a criminal justice purpose. See id. § 411.089(b). We agree the city must withhold the CHRI you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal law and subchapter F of chapter 411 of the Government Code. The rest of the submitted information must be released.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/bhf

Ref: ID# 474734

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.130(c) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact the information described in subsections 552.130(a)(1) and (a)(3) without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office. See Gov't Code § 552.130(c); see also id. § 552.130(d)-(e) (requestor may appeal governmental body's decision to withhold information under section 552.130(c) to attorney general, and governmental body withholding information pursuant to section 552.130(c) must provide notice to requestor). Section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without requesting a decision. See id. § 552.147(b).

POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US
An Equal Employment Opportunity Employer